Farm Focused Mental Health Supports

Resolution E1-19: Access to Farm Specific Mental Health Resources

Dr. Briana Hagen is one of Canada’s leading experts on mental health in the farming sector. She is based in Manitoba and works with the University of Guelph. Dr. Hagen and her colleagues have done multiple national studies and developed a program called, In the Know, which has been adopted and delivered in many provinces across Canada. The program is geared toward helping farmers better identify, understand, and cope with the many mental health challenges they face in their profession. Dr. Hagen was that the issue of mental health in farming is fundamentally different than in other sectors.

In a 2016 study Dr. Briana Hagen found that over one third of the farmers in the study had depression, and 58% anxiety. Challenges for farm operators are geography, the expense of the travel for treatment options and needing creative ways to take time off to work on mental health issues. Finding mental health supports that understand the challenges of farming is a barrier to farmers seeking the help they require.

Recently the Agriculture Research and Extension Council of Alberta (ARECA) received an approval for a $123,000 grant from the Alberta government to address Mental Health Awareness for Farmers. The plan is to reach out to the various national and provincial mental health stakeholders to develop a coordinated approach similar to what is being done in other provinces.

Below is an interview with Dr. Briana Hagen from The First Sixteen podcast recorded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada which can be found on the Agri-Info webpage. You can subscribe to Agri-Info e-newsletter from the same site.

Framing the Next Policy Framework – The First Sixteen

"In my mind, those frameworks are both an art and a science." That's how Dori Gingera-Beauchemin describes the work of building Canada's national agricultural frameworks. And right now, the next one is taking shape. The Next Policy Framework will run 2028 to 2033 and succeeds the Sustainable CAP. We speak with two people who have shaped these frameworks from every angle. Dori Gingera-Beauchemin spent forty-four years with the Manitoba Department of Agriculture, including a decade as Deputy Minister. She has sat at the table for every framework negotiation since the year 2000. Tyler McCann, managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, has worked every side of the policy process from inside government, in industry, and on his own farm. Hear how policy moves the needle, where the next framework needs to focus, and why, as Tyler puts it, "we need to speak with one voice where we agree, and have respectful disagreement when we don't."

1. Framing the Next Policy Framework 39:25
2. From Idea to Adoption: Olds College smart farm 24:53
3. Women farmers leading into the future 25:20
4. More Than a Transaction: Reimagining Farm Transitions 30:17
5. From Fences to Firewalls: Cyber security in agriculture 26:18